YAROSLAVL. Feb 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The local Saturn research and production enterprise has designed Russia's baseline engine for cruise missiles.
Air Force Commander Vladimir Mikhailov handed to Saturn Director General Yuri Lastochkin an act on results of state bench tests of a new engine for cruise missiles codenamed 36-MT on Wednesday. The chairman of the state commission, Colonel Oleg Barmin, said at the ceremony that "there are no drawbacks that may impede commissioning of the asset."
According to data available to Interfax-Military News Agency, such engines were produced in Ukraine in the Soviet times. In order to get rid of this dependency, the Russian Defense Ministry ordered the Rybinskie Motory JS to work out a Russian missile engine and master its serial production.
Rybinskie Motory, the country's leading producer of engines for military transport and civil aviation, got the order two years ago. President Vladimir Putin praised the company's efforts in the sphere when he visited Rybinsk last year.
In July 2001, Rybinskie Motory joined forces with the Lyulka- Saturn design bureau to form the Saturn enterprise. The new entity reached the goal in a short time, designing a unique engine and establishing facilities for its serial production that starts soon.
Mikhailov said Saturn "has good prospects for further cooperation with the Air Force." "There is no other design bureau like that in Russia," he stressed.
Saturn will now concentrate on completion of another unique engine, the AL-41F that will be installed in Russian fifth- generation fighters. The Russian government has appointed Saturn mass producer of the engine.